You’re not alone. Whatever struggle you’re facing and however hard it feels to you right now, I’m confident that with support you can get through it. And I’m 100% confident that you’re not the first or only parent to have slipped up in all the ways you have slipped up, nor are you the only parent to have a child who does X or behaves in Y way. So you really aren’t alone and we are our here to support you and help life go better for you and your family.

Hand in Hand Parenting

The whole philosophy is really based upon the idea that people are good. That our children are born good and they’re doing the best they can and along the way, as they go through life…things happen. And the body has a natural process to heal from upsets and that process is a release of emotions…If we stop that process, a layer of hurt sets in. As the hurt piles up, the behavior gets stickier – off track.

Patty Wipfler (co-author of Listen) founded Hand in Hand in 1989, but has working with parents for more than for 40 years. She started out by running a day care and eventually turning it into a non profit, while developing tools based on connection and listening. Patty also wrote a set of booklets that sold very well – one on each of the five tools. Patty is Tosha’s mentor and asked her to c0-write the book with her.

The Five Tools

We want to do a balance of showing them that we care and we love them and they’re important and also pushing them to do things that they’re a little uncomfortable with but listening to the feelings that come up for them as we do that.

The tools taught in the Hand in Hand method are “really simple, but not necessarily easy,” according to Tosha. Some come easier than others depending on the person. “The whole philosophy is really based upon the idea that people are good. That our children are born good and they’re doing the best they can and along the way, as they go through life…things happen. And the body has a natural process to heal from upsets and that process is a release of emotions.”